Less than 24 hours after 49 people were killed and 53 more were injured at a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida (the largest ever mass shooting carried out by a civilian in the United States) more than 1,000 people gathered for a candlelit vigil and march in San Francisco’s Castro district.

Hundreds marched from the Harvey Milk Plaza to City Hall on Sunday, June 12, mourning those killed in Sunday’s shooting, the overwhelming majority of whom were Latino. For many in San Francisco—historically recognized as a safe haven for members of the LGBTQ community—the shooting hit close to home, in particular for LGBTQ Latinos and Latinas.

“I’ve been out for a long time, and one of the things that I always thought about was that something like that would happen in a club that I was in. It was my worst fears,” said Mission District native Miguel Bustos, who attended the vigil in the Castro. “And one thing as a community that we’re talking about, is that these are Latinos. These are members of a community that, for all intents and purposes, are always ignored.”

The gay club, known as Pulse, was celebrating a special “Latin night” at the time of the shooting. According to various media reports, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said that the gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, began his shooting spree at around to 2 a.m. on June 12, killing and injuring dozens with a Sig Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a handgun before being killed by police.

“We need to let the world know that these were Latinos. These were immigrants. Some were undocumented,” Bustos said. “But these were our brothers and sisters. It’s important that we recognize that and that we stand as a Latino community with them, and with their familias, because they could’ve been any one of us.”

“I look at their names, it could’ve been any one of us,” Rivera said. “It could’ve been any one of my friends. And it hurts when I see those names, and I see their skin—their complexion—they look like my friends and my brothers and sisters.”

Shooter may have been gay

Recent media reports and witness statements suggest that the shooter was quite possibly gay. Witness Kevin West, a regular at Pulse, told the Los Angeles Times that he had messaged Mateen on and off a year prior to the shooting, using the gay chat and dating app Jack’d. Other witnesses told the Orlando Sentinel that they had seen Mateen at Pulse, and that he had visited the club at least a dozen times.

The Palm Beach Post also reported that a classmate from Mateen’s 2006 police academy class said that he, Mateen and other classmates would hang out at gay nightclubs, and that Mateen once approached him romantically.

The shooting came just two weeks before San Francisco’s Pride parade and festival, and hours after James Wesley Howell, a 20 year old from Indiana, was arrested in Santa Monica. According to the Los Angeles Times, Howell planned to attend the L.A. Pride parade on June 12 in West Hollywood, and was in possession of three assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, ammunition and a five-gallon bucket containing chemicals that could be used to make an improvised-explosive device.

“SF Pride is planning to honor those killed in the terrorist attack in a special way,” Sam Singer of SF Pride wrote in an email. “Like everyone in the LGBTQ community, the organization is still coming to grips with the tragedy and horror of what happened as well as meeting with law enforcement agencies to discuss security measures for this year’s celebration and parade.”

Victims’ identities overshadowed in media

The mainstream media has largely focused on the gunman’s extremist views, leaving many in San Francisco’s Latino community feeling that the deaths of 49 people have been politicized. Many, including politicians and at least one presidential candidate, are blaming the mass shooting on Islam, and pointing to Mateen’s alleged ties to the Islamic State, without having acknowledged that the victims were targeted because they were LGBTQ.

“This issue is much more complicated,” said Rivera. “When we simplify it, that it’s just a religious radical, we perpetuate the same cycle. So I hope that it provides us an opportunity to further look into what are the core issues that are being used to manipulate and pit us against each other.”

For many, the tragic shooting is a grim reminder that the violence directed at LGBTQ communities as a result of homophobia persists even after mainstream acceptance has been largely obtained.

“The disparities, the injustices for us continue,” Rivera said. “It’s happening day to day. This isn’t news to us. This is a reality of communities of color.”

Rivera witnessed a dose of that violence last year when Galería de la Raza’s “Por Vida” mural, which depicted gay and lesbian couples embracing and a trans man in lowrider-style art, was set on fire.

“People were not just saying, ‘We don’t agree with your view.’ People were actually calling for violence to be inflicted upon us,” Rivera said. “Like it was OK and justifiable because we were disposable people. And that was my biggest fear, that something like what happened in Orlando would end up happening to folks who came to Galería.”

Erick Arguello, president of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District Council, was shocked and saddened when he heard the news of Orlando. Arguello called District 9 supervisor David Campos, before fielding numerous phone calls, many from LGBTQ groups.

These spaces are usually created for people in the community to feel safe,” Arguello said, referring to gay nightclubs in general. “For us as veteranos, people who have been out for a long time, it struck that sense of fear again. You can imagine what that does to people who are not completely sure about how to go through that process.”

Rivera also worries about the message this attack sends to the younger generation of LGBTQ people.

“I hope that they don’t feel like they have to go back into the closet,” she said.

Rivera feels that the actual victims were forgotten in the media frenzy after news of the shooting broke.

“When we don’t focus on the actual victims, on the actual victims that are in mourning, it can really gloss over the issue. And in that moment … there was a specific sector that was overshadowed.”

About

El Tecolote newspaper began as a project in a La Raza Studies class at San Francisco State University. Prof. Juan Gonzales created the class as a way to channel more Latinos into journalism. In the 1970s, Latinos and other people of color were virtually invisible in the major newsrooms.

Today El Tecolote continues to provide original local news, portraying the diverse spectrum of Latino life.

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